Chapter One #2
“Hardly.” The statement tugged a chuckle from him.
“Age is merely how we keep track of the years. It is meaningless beyond that.” Then he spent copious moments fondling one breast while leisurely licking and nipping the nipple of the other.
Many times he had lost himself in her curves, and he hoped he’d have many years ahead doing the same.
“Dear heavens, you are quite potent tonight.” She threw back her head, and a tendril of hair escaped its pins.
“Perhaps I haven’t properly appreciated your prowess recently.
” The fingers resting on his shoulders dug into his skin through the layers of his clothing.
“I must apologize and—” a moan interrupted her words when he rolled the other tempting pink bud, gave it a playful pinch while applying firm suction to the tip he’d already latched onto.
“Ha! You are good for my ego.” There was no shame in admitting such. It wasn’t as if he were a green boy out of university or she an innocent. “And in moments, you’ll be good for a very different part of me.”
“Not your best joke,” she said in a whisper as she furrowed her fingers into his hair and held his lips to her breast. “Yet I can wholeheartedly agree, for I want you to unleash that part of you too.”
“Damn, but I love you.” With a certain smugness to his grin, Gabriel spent the next several minutes pleasuring her breasts, and as her breathing shallowed, he kissed her again, for how could he not?
The warmth of her in his hands, on his lap, the violet scent of her, the faint sounds of pleasure she made, the way her fingers curled into the hair at his nape and how she brushed her body against his all worked to hurtle him close to the edge and they’d yet to couple.
“Gabriel...” Mary pressed a line of tiny kisses to the underside of his jaw, the hollow of his throat, the upper portion of his chest. “I love you, too. So much.” When she worried a specific spot where his jaws connected, he gave in to a shudder and nearly came prematurely, but he eased backward to meet her gaze in the flickering candlelight.
“I adore that there is still heat between us.”
The urgency in her whisper matched the hunger prowling restlessly through him.
“May it never fade.” Not knowing what else to say, he spent the next several seconds kissing her lips, licking her neck, nibbling the slope of her shoulder, exploring the curves of her breasts until she quivered with need, moaned her approval.
“Ah, Inspector, I would like to see you naked.” Mary delved a hand beneath his shirt once more to tangle her fingers in the mat of hair on his chest.
“Soon, perhaps.” He was moments away from exploding, but he wanted to prolong the foreplay, merely because she captivated him.
Yet still he craved her, couldn’t have enough of her, so he burrowed a hand beneath her skirting and didn’t stop until he brushed his fingers through the curls hiding that swollen bud at her center.
“Spoilsport.” Her eyes briefly closed but she held him tighter, nipped and nibbled at the place where his neck joined his shoulder, and when she lightly bit that skin, it was his turn to moan and hover on that razor’s edge of pleasure.
Was it wicked to tease her like this when they already knew each other so intimately? Yes, yes, it was. Did he care? Not in the least, for that was part of the fun of being married to an adventurous woman like Mary.
And he enjoyed watching her squirm with pleasure. It enhanced his own.
With one hand playing her breast, he strummed the fingers of his other hand along the swelling button at her center, and as she gyrated her hips against his hand, he continued to kiss her; their moans blended in the silence of the room as well as the rain at the windows.
“Oh, yes!” A shiver went through his wife.
All too soon, Mary hit release, and it was the most beautiful thing he’d ever seen even after two years of marriage.
She threw back her head and arched her spine, giving into a keening cry.
Her body shook, and wicked man that he was, Gabriel took full advantage of her slip from reality.
He suckled her nipple again until he’d brought her to the brink once more, and all the while, he never let up on the firm friction he put against that all-important nubbin.
I am so damned fortunate.
“Bloody hell, Mary,” he whispered against the soft skin of her neck. “I want you naked as much as you wish to see me sans clothing.”
“No time. Enjoy this moment,” she said, her dulcet tones breathless as she trembled on his lap. “I won’t last…”
Gabriel chuckled. “Always so needy.”
“Mmm.” She fought her way through yards of skirting before her fingers fumbled at the buttons of his frontfalls.
“Let me.” While he grinned from her ever-present enthusiasm, he batted her hand away in order to complete the task of freeing his hardened, straining shaft.
Then he paused to cup her cheek. “I can’t imagine my life without you in it.
” Dragging the pad of his thumb along her lower lip, he whispered, “You have not only upended my life in ways I probably haven’t seen yet, but you’ve made me a better man for it. Every damned day.”
Tears welled in her eyes. “I feel the same way about you. Everything changed when I met you, and I haven’t been able to catch my breath since.”
“Now who’s waxing romantic?” Later, he would hold those words to his heart, but just now, he was ready to explode.
“Must be the company I keep.” She nipped at his chin, pressed tiny kisses to his cheeks, his forehead, the side of his neck. “Now, show me with this how much you love me.” Her fingers went gently around his aroused member, and when she squeezed his shaft, his whole world tilted.
“I promise to be at your mercy and let you play at a later time, but I’m far too primed right now.”
“I’ll hold you to it.” Her smile could have lit the whole of England with its brilliance, and suddenly he wanted to be the man who could make her do that always. “I need to feel you inside me, Inspector. No more delays.”
“Agreed.” When she rose onto her knees, he guided the head of his member to her opening, and as she slowly, oh so damned slowly, impaled herself on his length, a shuddering sigh left his throat. “Bloody hell, I live for this moment.”
She made a sound much like the purr of a contented cat.
“I’ll admit, you are quite satisfying,” she whispered as she wriggled on his length to fully seat him.
Then she moved, up and down, sliding along his shaft, over and over and over, her fingers digging into his shoulders as she held his gaze.
“Speaking of age, it hasn’t ever affected how you perform in bed,” she whispered against his lips and then was apparently distracted in kissing him or learning the secrets of his mouth.
Soon he would be lost, drifting aimlessly in the wonder that was her. He widened his legs, thrust upward with each of her downstrokes, and with every pass, sanity slipped away. “Or in any other aspect of my life, I’ll wager.”
“Very true.” As she bounced, a sound of frustration escaped her throat. “I need more than this position allows.”
“So it always goes with us. I think, perhaps, you just want me to take control.”
“As if that is such a bad thing?” she asked with teasing her voice.
“Ha.” Urgently, he urged her off his lap.
If he weren’t careful, he’d explode, and their tryst would end without satisfaction.
Then he joined her on the bed and encouraged her onto her back against the pillows, and he leaned over her.
With his lips at the shell of her ear, he said, “Knees to your chest. Let me go as deep into you as I can. We both enjoy that.”
“See? Cheeky.”
“Mmm.” Then he settled between her splayed knees, planted his elbows on either side of her to encompass her body within the cage of his arms while holding her head in his palms. “Better?”
“Claim me then we’ll talk.”
God, how much did he adore her sharp mind and tart mouth? With one powerful thrust of his hips, he speared into her, burying himself in her heated passage until they were irrevocably joined.
“Dear heavens, yes.” Need mixed with surprise in her eyes as she wrapped her arms about his shoulders and cradled his hips with her thighs. Her breath came in soft pants. “This is so…” She thrashed her head on the sofa cushion. “Let us just say I’m so very glad I married you.”
“Minx.” The fact she was in love with him as he was her was everything, but now was not the time for words.
Again and again, he stroked into her body, thrilled that her honeyed heat sucked greedily at his shaft.
Over and over, he lost himself in the glory of his wife who was his equal in every way.
She held him close, encouraged him even closer with the subtle tightening of her fingers and legs, and he obeyed—how could he not?
They moved together as one, for they’d had over two years of practice dancing this way.
As he stared into her eyes and she looked back, a piece of his heart flew into her keeping. As if she already didn’t hold the whole organ. Every day, he thanked God for this woman. For all they had together.
Foreign emotions clogged his throat. His pulse roared in his ears while he continued to penetrate her.
Not able to find the appropriate words, he pressed his forehead to hers, and when a moan escaped her, that tiny little sound broke the hold on his control.
Need tingled through his stones, drawing them tight to his body.
His rhythm changed, quickened, and he shifted his stance so that the root of his member rubbed against her swollen button.
The acceleration of her breathing guided him, reassured him he was indeed satisfying her, and he stroked into her with more authority.